Granddaughter's Keepsake Box and Lamp

The box and Lamp I made for my granddaughter’s 20th birthday. The Box is of Maple and Black walnut. The lamp is all Black Walnut with opaque acrylic for the lamp portion. The Box is somewhat unconventional, in that the box portion may be lifted from the base. The base and of course oveall rectangular size was established to contain four pockets to hold regular small size envelopes. Basically the envelopes, 46 in all contained letters I wrote to Samantha since she was born, but had never seen. As a toddler and young girl, I would take her out on Sundays for a few hours doing various stuff and then write to her about our day and seal it in an envelope.The front of the envelope was marked “To be opened by Sam when she is old enough to read”. As it turned out, I never gave them to her until I made the special box and gave it to her on her 20th birthday, when she was with the US Army, Intelligence Service, serving in Hawaii, in 2005. The letters can be seen in the second photo, housed in the box base. The lamp was from a design ppresented in one of the magazines I subscribe to.

It seems you have a knack for producing tastefully designed and well constructed projects. It was a pleasure to see them and read the story behind the box. I also second Mike’s wishes to thank you daughter for her service.

That is so thoughtful to think that far into the future to remind her of how you felt in the past. Thoughtful and cleaver! Tears were close by my wife and I ! (Well they were there, but admitting I cried @ 5 am is not good! ) Smile.

Great job! God bless you family & our men and women serving this Great Country!

Beautiful work and a beautiful story! The lamp is so interesting to me. I’ve been wanting to make a lamp like that from materials that could be placed outside in a garden and use solar power for the night light, which are quite common now, but the designs are not this beautiful.

Man…Now that’s what I call planning ahead…. Great looking box with a very cool and sincere meaning behind it. It sounds like she has a wonderful grandfather and I am sure she very touched by the box and your letters.